OUR FATHER WHOSE TEMPLE IS A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR THE NATIONS

The book of John chapter  2 verses 13 - 22 records when Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Passover and while he was there, found that the temple had been converted into a trading floor for sacrificial animals and currency changers.

As people poured into Jerusalem for the Passover feast, merchants took advantage of the high demand for animals and for the temple currency and they set up booths inside the temple in order to sell their wares at seasonally inflated rates.

This missappropriation of the temple stirred Jesus to anger and He scattered the vendors who had setup their retail opertations in a spiritual space by driving the animals out and by overturning the tables on which currency was being traded.

This activity attracted an investigation by the temple managers who asked what spiritual credentials Jesus had that permitted Him to enforce the spiritual function of the temple.

The passage reads this way;

13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” 17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

18 So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?”

19 Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

20 Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”

21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

As Jesus replied to the temple managers, the sign of Jesusˋ spiritul authority to clear the temple was that He would die and in three days, He would rise again. 

Amen.

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